Apple’s iRadio To Launch This Year, Just Like Last Year, And The Year Before That

A rumour from 2012 has persisted into the new year. Sources are saying that Apple is looking to launch iRadio, Apple’s own digital radio service, which will compete with other online radio services like Pandora and Spotify.

Sources are saying that Apple is in talks with people in the recording industry, looking to negotiate a deal they hope to debut in 2013. Apple’s iRadio would be advertising-supported, but all parties involved have yet to decide how they will share ad revenue. Well-connected analyst Richard Greenfield stated this week:

“Consumer behavior (is) increasingly shifting toward access to a music catalog from ownership of specific songs. We expect iRadio to be incorporated into the iTunes iOS app with personalized radio functionality akin to Pandora, integrated with iTunes to purchase music and other music related content such as concert information/tickets/merchandise via Live Nation (LYV) and Ticketmaster.”

Given the fact that Apple purchased Lala, a popular music streaming service back in 2009, it seems obvious that Apple’s working on something deep in its research labs, but we’ve been hearing about Apple streaming services since the day after news of the acquisition broke online. At this point, we’ll believe it when we actually see it.